Ready to Eat: Review 3 Minute MTR Breakfast Poha Upma

We BUY it to TRY it. This review is not sponsored or paid by any party. This is my personal opinion on the product after buying it with my hard earned money.

I read about this ‘Desi’ answer to a quick cornflakes breakfast. MTR launched their 3 minute breakfasts earlier this year to give the work force of India a quick and desi breakfast option. A lot of us tend to skip breakfast because we don’t have the time in the morning. Even though there’s the chaiwala, wada pav and samosa close by, we don’t always have the luxury to enjoy warm upma or freshly made poha while rushing for work.

I tried this 3 minute breakfast because although I love to cook, while rushing for work in the morning is not my favourite time to spare more that 5 minutes to prepare breakfast. As a result, my breakfast is almost always same old boring fried egg and bread. The most effort I put in it is add some chilli or cheese.

MTR 3 minute breakfast seemed like a good option to add variety to weekday breakfasts. I have to admit, I became more willing to try it out because I was seduced by the BUY 1 GET 1 sign in the supermarket aisle. So, I bought two 3 minute breakfasts for Rs 45, instead of one. One Upma, and the other poha. That should work well because the airtight packaging must have cost more than the food in it!

Ease of Use

You might say that one has to be really stupid to not get this right. All you have to do is measure and add hot water. But since I thought I was too smart to measure the water to be added, my MTR upma turned out great but the poha became a bit soupy, and quite honestly, not good to taste. It isn’t rocket science but I just added the water on a whim, assuming I already knew how much was needed! The good news is that both upma and poha were ready in 3 minutes as promised on the box. Although I gave it an extra minute just to be sure. It was a quick desi breakfast after all.

Health (Ingredient Label)

While I was impressed that the poha had minimum added preservatives or artificial flavours. The upma ingredients included to artificial additives to stabilise and maintain the texture and taste of the upma. The texture of upma turned out to be moist and fluffy. I’d rather pick the poha over upma because it had fewer artificial ingredients.

Taste

Taste wise I enjoyed the upma more, also because it had turned out to be the right consistency unlike the poha. I did find the salt in both breakfast options to be a bit on the lower side to what I generally eat but I find that a good thing since it makes the breakfast healthier and gives you an option of adding salt to your taste.

Who should buy it?

When I said that I’d rather take time on a Sunday and roast some poha and some rava to whip up a quick homemade breakfast instead, my dad was quick to point out that I would always feel too lazy to do that. Also, people like my dad, who are non cooks or too lazy to make breakfast, they deserve a quick and easy option and MTR 3 minute breakfast serves this purpose. It most definitely wins because of the time factor. Because even if I do pre-roast a batch of poha or upma for a quick breakfast, it will not be as fast as 3 minutes. MTR has definitely won this one of saving time.

Value for Money

In India we still get fresh homemade poha or idli chutney or Rs 20 for breakfast. If these options are available to the salaried worker, I don’t see why one would find it feasible to buy breakfast for Rs 45. The price is not very steep and it is a good back up to keep in office or at home for those sudden hunger pangs,

I would not buy this product if I could spare a few minutes on the weekend to roast my own poha and rawa. On the other hand if I were a non cook, or lazy to cook at rush hour, this would be a perfect breakfast solution with sufficient options to begin with. I believe that it is bad for health to skip breakfast. So depending on the nature of your work every morning, you can make a healthier choice.

Food journalist, researcher & marketer. Food, to me, is therapy. Let's use superfood and nutritious ingredients to make healthy food fun for our family. If eating well makes you happy, welcome to the family.

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Food journalist, researcher & marketer. Food, to me, is therapy. Let's use superfood and nutritious ingredients to make healthy food fun for our family. If eating well makes you happy, welcome to the family.